Taylor Swift Should Be Held Accountable For Who She Chooses To Date
She's grown enough to make her own choices, yet who she aligns herself with speaks volumes.
Kathy Hutchins, Ben Houdijk / Shutterstock Taylor Swift and Matty Healy’s supposed romance has sent certain Swifties spiraling. Some are vocal about their discontent and disappointment in the superstar, even calling Swift out with the hashtag #SpeakUpNow on Twitter. Others, however, have been feverishly defending her.
The backlash over her alleged new boyfriend comes at a crucial moment in the pop icon’s Era’s tour, for which she’s sold out stadiums nationwide. Swift is at the top of the world artistically; she holds more prominence and power now than ever before in her career. Her decision to date someone like Matty Healy speaks volumes about who she is and where her values really lie.
Taylor Swift should be held accountable for dating Matty Healy.
Swift has every right to date who she wants but her fans also have the right to call her on who she aligns herself with.
A Rolling Stone article from May 30, 2023, made the claim that Swift has nothing to apologize for by dating Healy — if she were a man, fans wouldn’t be having this conversation. There’s validity in that statement. Yes, Swift is subject to a misogynist narrative, one that discounts her artistic achievements in favor of dragging her for dating men and then writing about her experience.
RELATED: If Taylor Swift Really Cares About Her Fans, She Would 'Speak Now' About The Issues That Impact Them
But to focus solely on whether she’d get criticized if she were a man is to miss the point of the conversation.
“For the last 17 years, we’ve held this woman responsible for the actions of men she chooses to spend time with, and it’s time to stop,” Rolling Stone reporter Angie Martoccio wrote.
While it’s absolutely true that Swift isn’t responsible for the problematic, toxic worldview Healy openly expresses, it’s also true that she’s a grown woman with massive amounts of privilege and power. Swift made the decision to date a musician with a documented history of weaponizing his own privilege, by speaking inflammatory cultural commentary on one side of his mouth, then declaring how little what he says matters on the other. When asked by The New Yorker this week if he baits his fans, Healy said he did, sometimes, then said, “But it doesn’t actually matter.”
White silence is how white supremacy is continuously upheld. Healy made the active choice to not speak up when podcast hosts Adam Friedman and Nick Mullen made racist comments about Ice Spice. He decided to sit there and laugh along. He could have leveraged his privilege, yet didn’t—and his silence showed where his allegiances are. Healy is all about speaking his mind, then sloughing off accountability for causing harm.
Swift’s silent choice to date Matty Healy shows she isn’t taking accountability for her own agency or choices.
“Your voice holds tremendous power and right now, your silence is palpable,” fans wrote in an open letter to Swift on Twitter.
Photo: Twitter
“True change requires more than a simple apology: it necessitates a commitment to… actively dismantling systems of oppression that perpetuate racism and discrimination.”
Photo: Twitter
To be an inclusive accomplice requires people to affect change in how they live their daily lives, not just stand on stage and give lip service to various people on the margins. If love is an action word, and actions speak loudest, Swift is showing the world her truest self—a woman more interested in maintaining her status than lifting others as she climbs.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.